HUNTINGTON, W.Va (WDTV) - A West Virginia man was cited by police after TSA officers at Huntington Tri-State Airport caught a loaded handgun in the man’s carry-on bag Thursday morning.

The .40 caliber handgun was loaded with 12 bullets, according to TSA officials.

When the TSA officer spotted the gun in the checkpoint X-ray machine, local police were alerted, came to the checkpoint, confiscated the weapon and cited the man on a weapons charge.

When an individual shows up at a checkpoint with a firearm, the checkpoint lane comes to a standstill until the police resolve the incident. Guns at checkpoints can delay travelers from getting to their gates.

The Kenova, West Virginia man told officials that he forgot that he had his loaded gun with him.

“It’s important to know where your gun is at all times, especially when you are packing for a flight,” said Simone Beyer, TSA’s Acting Federal Security Director for West Virginia. “Guns at security checkpoints are a serious concern. There’s a right way to transport a gun for a flight and a wrong way. The wrong way is to bring it to a checkpoint. The right way is to make sure it’s unloaded, packed in a hard-sided locked case and brought to the airline check-in counter to be declared. The airline will make sure it is transported in the belly of the plane where nobody has access to it during a flight.”

TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint.

Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. The complete list of civil penalties is posted online.

Nationwide, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year.

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